Hamilton’s Chedoke Creek. Photo credit: City of Hamilton
The City of Hamilton’s Chedoke Creek remediation project remains delayed due to a dispute with a local Indigenous group. The city was ordered by the Ontario Government to dredge the creek, a process which involves vacuuming up 22,000 tonnes of polluted sediment from the waterway. The order came after revelations of a large four-year sewage leak, dubbed “Sewergate,” that spilled 24 billion litres of untreated water into the tributary.
The $6-million project was scheduled to start on August 18, 2022. The city was supposed to complete decontamination by December 31, 2022.
But when the city began clean-up of the creek, the Haudenosaunee Development Institute (HDI), an Indigenous group made up of hereditary Six Nations leaders, staged various interruptions, saying that the municipality needs to seek consent prior to any clean-up activities and that HDI should have an active role in monitoring the project. They also want the city to pay for all costs related to their monitoring remediation, claiming they will need in excess of $350,000 to do so.
The contractor in charge of the clean-up, Milestone Environmental, reported nearly 40 “incidents of disruption,” including “dangerous” intrusions into construction areas. Equipment has also been stolen from the site. As a result, decontamination has had to stop, and the contractor will only restart work once a safe workplace can be guaranteed.
As a result, the city appealed to the province in October 2022 to use powers under the Environmental Protection Act to issue an order to HDI allowing dredging to go ahead unencumbered. The province replied saying that they will not be issuing an order and that the municipal government is properly equipped to deal with the situation.
The City of Hamilton also asked for a one-year extension to the December 31, 2022 project deadline. An extension was granted, but a new completion date has not been set by the province at this time.
The city is reportedly open to Indigenous monitoring, but there are worries that “seeking consent” for the project will be a precedent-setting action that will mean the city will be required to seek consent to any number of future municipal projects. Municipal staff are also reportedly only open to covering some of the monitoring costs, not the entire $350,000 that was demanded.
It remains unclear how the city will resolve the situation.
It should also be noted that the Six Nations elected council strongly supports the Chedoke Creek cleanup. Indigenous elected councils and hereditary councils have been at odds on a number of issues over the years, and the internal governance conflicts make for difficult Indigenous-municipal relationships.
Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Kevin Geenen reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on social media. He is a regular contributor with The Hamilton Independent and has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. He is known for Hamilton Neighbourhood Watch crime updates and no-nonsense news graphics. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. He also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal from Governor General David Johnston and formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. He is currently employed as an Office Administrator at RE/MAX Escarpment. His journalistic work is independent of his other positions.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
